Red Dragon (Hannibal Lecter 1)

“I don’t think I’ll persuade you. You’ll do it or you won’t. Dr. Bloom is working on it anyway, and he’s the most—”

“Do you have the file with you?”

“Yes.”

“And pictures?”

“Yes.”

“Let me have them, and I might consider it.”

“No.”

“Do you dream much, Will?”

“Good-bye, Dr. Lecter.”

“You haven’t threatened to take away my books yet.”

Graham walked away.

“Let me have the file, then. I’ll tell you what I think.”

Graham had to pack the abridged file tightly into the sliding tray. Lecter pulled it through.

“There’s a summary on top. You can read that now,” Graham said.

“Do you mind if I do it privately? Give me an hour.”

Graham waited on a tired plastic couch in a grim lounge. Orderlies came in for coffee. He did not speak to them. He stared at small objects in the room and was glad they held still in his vision. He had to go to the rest room twice. He was numb.

The turnkey admitted him to the maximum-security section again.

Lecter sat at his table, his eyes filmed with thought. Graham knew he had spent most of the hour with the pictures.

“This is a very shy boy, Will. I’d love to meet him. . . . Have you considered the possibility that he’s disfigured? Or that he may believe he’s disfigured?”

“The mirrors.”

“Yes. You notice he smashed all the mirrors in the houses, not just enough to get the pieces he wanted. He doesn’t just put the shards in place for the damage they cause. They’re set so he can see himself. In their eyes—Mrs. Jacobi and . . . What was the other name?”

“Mrs. Leeds.”

“Yes.”

“That’s interesting,” Graham said.

“It’s not ‘interesting.’ You’d thought of that before.”

“I had considered it.”

“You just came here to look at me. Just to get the old scent again, didn’t you? Why don’t you just smell yourself?”

“I want your opinion.”

“I don’t have one right now.”

“When you do have one, I’d like to hear it.”